Multi AGV Coordination Tolerant to Communication Failures

—In this paper, a Cooperative Multi-robot for Carrying Targets (CMCT) algorithm is proposed. The multi-robot team consists of three robots, one is a supervisor and the others are workers for carrying boxes in a store of 100×100 m 2. Each robot has a self recharging mechanism. The CMCT minimizes robot's worked time for carrying many boxes during day by working in parallel. That is, the supervisor detects the required variables in the same time another robots work with previous variables. It works with straightforward mechanical models by using simple cosine laws. It detects the robot's shortest path for reaching the target position avoiding obstacles by using a proposed CMCT path planning (CMCT-PP) algorithm. It prevents the collision between robots during moving. The robots interact in an ad hoc wireless network. Simulation results show that the proposed system that consists of CMCT algorithm and its accomplished CMCT-PP algorithm achieves a high improvement in time and distance while performing the required tasks over the already existed algorithms.

2009

In this paper, a Cooperative Multi-robot for Carrying Targets (CMCT) algorithm is proposed. The multi-robot team consists of three robots, one is a supervisor and the others are workers for carrying boxes in a store of 100×100 m2. Each robot has a self recharging mechanism. The CMCT minimizes robot-s worked time for carrying many boxes during day by working in parallel. That is, the supervisor detects the required variables in the same time another robots work with previous variables. It works with straightforward mechanical models by using simple cosine laws. It detects the robot-s shortest path for reaching the target position avoiding obstacles by using a proposed CMCT path planning (CMCT-PP) algorithm. It prevents the collision between robots during moving. The robots interact in an ad hoc wireless network. Simulation results show that the proposed system that consists of CMCT algorithm and its accomplished CMCT-PP algorithm achieves a high improvement in time and distance while...

Acta Physica Polonica A, 2017

One of the main problems in path planning for multiple mobile robots is to find the optimal path between two points so that robots can follow the shortest path and consume the least energy. Also, motion planning is important to avoid collisions if multiple mobile robots are running together within environments with obstacles. In this study, motion planning for multiple robots has been proposed. It is desired that robots could move in coordination with each other from the starting point to the destination point on a plane. The coordinates of the objects and mobile robots have been acquired using image processing with a single ceiling camera. The path planning for the shortest distance has been performed using A* algorithm in dynamic frame between robot-object and object-target point, respectively. A graphical user interface has been developed based on MATLAB GUI. It is hoped that the developed system will have a wide area of applications in industry and will make important contributions for the improvement of manufacturing, assembly, transportation and storage technologies.

1997 8th International Conference on Advanced Robotics. Proceedings. ICAR'97, 1997

We present and discuss a generic cooperative s c heme for multi-robot cooperation based on an incremental and distributed plan-merging process. Each robot, autonomously and incrementally builds and executes its own plans taking into account t h e m ulti-robot context. The robots are assumed to be able to collect the other robots current plans and goals and to produce plans which satisfy a set of constraints that will be discussed. We discuss the properties of this cooperative s c heme (coherence, detection of dead-lock situations) as well as the class of applications for which i t i s w ell suited. We show h o w this paradigm can be used in a hierarchical manner, and in contexts where planning is performed in parallel with plan execution. We also discuss the possibility to negotiate goals within this framework and how this paradigm \ lls the gap" between centralised planning and distributed execution. We nally illustrate this scheme through an implemented system which allows a eet of autonomous mobile robots to perform load transfer tasks in a route network environment with a very limited centralised activity and important gains in system exibility and robustness to execution contingencies.

International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2013

In the field of mobile robotics, the study of multi-robot systems (MRSs) has grown significantly in size and importance in recent years. Having made great progress in the development of the basic problems concerning single-robot control, many researchers shifted their focus to the study of multi-robot coordination. This paper presents a systematic survey and analysis of the existing literature on coordination, especially in multiple mobile robot systems (MMRSs). A series of related problems have been reviewed, which include a communication mechanism, a planning strategy and a decision-making structure. A brief conclusion and further research perspectives are given at the end of the paper.

International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics, 2018

Development of a navigation scheme for a group of cooperative mobile robots is attempted in this paper. Potential field method is used to generate collision-free movement of a robot while it encounters other robots as obstacles. Finally, a cooperation scheme is proposed based on human behaviour to optimise motion strategies of robots treating each other as their obstacles. Computer simulations have been conducted for three different cases with four, eight and 12 robots negotiating a common dynamic environment. In each case, 100 different scenarios are considered and travelling times of all the robots are computed separately. The scenes in which the robots meeting collision is treated as a failure scenario and travelling time is not calculated. Performance of cooperation scheme has improved with the increase in a number of robots.

Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 2016

This paper proposes an approach to deal with the problem of coordinating multirobot systems, in which each robot executes individually planned tasks in a shared workspace. The approach is a decoupled method that can coordinate the participating robots in on-line mode. The coordination is achieved through the adjustment of the time evolution of each robot along its original planned geometric path according to the movements of the other robots to assure a collision-free execution of their respective tasks. To assess the proposed approach different tests were performed in graphical simulations and real experiments.

IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, 2019

Motion planning is one of the most critical problems in multirobot systems. The basic target is to generate a collisionfree trajectory for each robot from its initial position to the target position. In this paper, we study the trajectory planning for the multirobot systems operating in unstructured and changing environments. Each robot is equipped with some sensors of limited sensing ranges. We propose a fully distributed approach to planning trajectories for such systems. It combines the model predictive control (MPC) strategy and the incremental sequential convex programming (iSCP) method. The MPC framework is applied to detect the local running environment real-timely with the concept of receding horizon. For each robot, a nonlinear programming is built in its current prediction horizon. To construct its own optimization problem, a robot first needs to communicate with its neighbors to retrieve their current states. Then, the robot predicts the neighbors' future positions in the current horizon and constructs the problem without waiting for the prediction information from its neighbors. At last, each robot solves its problem independently via the iSCP method such that the robot can move autonomously. The proposed method is polynomial in its computational complexity.

International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2010

Sensor-based coverage problems have many applications such as patrolling, search-rescue, and surveillance. Using multi-robot team increases efficiency by reducing completion time of a sensor-based coverage task. Robustness to robot failures is another advantage of using multiple robots for coverage. Although there are many works to increase the efficiency of coverage methods, there are few works related to robot failures in the literature. In this paper, fault-tolerant control architecture is proposed for sensor-based coverage. Robot failures are detected using the heartbeat strategy. To show the effectiveness of the proposed approach, experiments are conducted using P3-DX mobile robots both in laboratory and simulation environment. INTECH, Croatia, downloaded from SCIYO.COM problem, CARP-based planning algorithm is used in the PA of the architecture.Other types of planning algorithms may also be used for planning. Besides, other multi-robot missions such as object handling and transportation, serving patients and elderly in hospitals, etc. can easily be implemented by using the proposed robot control architecture. In this study, it is assumed that the communication network is fully connected. This assumption results in a polynomial increase of communication delay as the number of robots increases. Therefore, a wise communication strategy to reduce the time delay should be used. For instance, one robot may only communicate with the nearest partner while the whole communication network is kept to be connected. In the future studies, the authors plan to search the literature for communication topology and time delay, and use a proper communication strategy to reduce the communication delays.

2021

Recently, Multi-Robot Systems (MRS) have attained considerable recognition because of their efficiency and applicability in different types of real-life applications. This paper provides a comprehensive research study on MRS coordination, starting with the basic terminology, categorization, application domains, and finally, give a summary and insights on the proposed coordination approaches for each application domain. We have done an extensive study on recent contributions in this research area in order to identify the strengths, limitations, and open research issues, and also highlighted the scope for future research. Further, we have examined a series of MRS state-of-the-art parameters that affect MRS coordination and, thus, the efficiency of MRS, like communication mechanism, planning strategy, control architecture, scalability, and decision-making. We have proposed a new taxonomy to classify various coordination approaches of MRS based on the six broad dimensions. We have also ...